Journal of a Walk Down the River Thames

by Keith Pauling

About The Walk

Sometimes there is the urge to do something different. But do what, exactly?

This is what hit me in the late autumn of 2007.

As John Lennon once famously said, “Life is what happens while you are making plans”.

This fit, feisty, rebellious teenager that was going to change the world had been through the standard phases of life; marriage, kids, mortgage, climbing and slipping on the greasy-pole of career ambition and what was the result? I had gone from fit to fat. Long-haired and young had become hair long-gone. In the football match of life I was playing out a steady 1-1 draw with the clock running mid-way through the second half and desperately hoping that the manager was not going to sub me off before the final whistle.

The human brain is a wonderful thing. We cram it with all sorts of random bits and bobs and provided we leave it to its own devices it is capable of coming up with the most amazing solutions. My own grey-matter absorbed all of my life history to date, and came up with its proposal.

Walk along the Thames and write about it.

There is only one option to take in these situations. In the words of the Nike advert – “Just Do It”.

I set off on Saturday April 26th 2008 from the source near Kemble, and finished at the Thames Flood Barrier twelve days later. This is my journal of the walk, the scenery, the places and the histories surrounding the River Thames.